Siersdorfer Building

This building was built by the Siersdorfer family in 1891.

Their story starts in Prussia prior to 1853. The family's homeland had just been through a revolution. The first constitution completed by monarchy didn't benefit every citizen. In fact, it divided the country into a system where votes of the people were weighed by the amount of taxes paid. Women and those not paying taxes did not have the right to vote.

Seeing this unjust system the family of four brothers, Nicholas, Michael, Mathias and Louis, left and sailed across the Atlantic to America. First they settled in Cincinnati and later moved to Carrollton in 1858 due to a smallpox epidemic in Cincinnati.

Michael was instrumental in getting gas lighting for downtown Carrollton. Sadly, in 1879 Michael drown after falling into the water at the wharf in Carrollton where the steamer, United States, was moored.
After a fire in 1891 destroyed the family shoe store the 1891 Siersdorfer building was built. It took nine months for George Snelgrove to build the building.

Originally they sold an assortment of clothing, shoes, hats and furnishings on the first floor. The second floor housed the Central Hotel.

From a Facebook post by Henry County Helping Hands, Inc.